The Book of Sand Jorge Luis Borges SETTING 4TH Floor

1
The Book of Sand

• Jorge Luis Borges

2
SETTING

• 4TH Floor Apartment
• Belgrano Street
• Buenos Aires

3
CHARACTERS

• Narrator retired/ used to work at the Argentine
  National Library/ seems to be a collector of
  books/ becomes obsessed with the Book of Sand/
• Bible Salesman from the Orkneys/ tall/
  nondescript features/ dressed in gray/ gray
  suitcase in hand/ foreigner/ appeared old with
  thin blond hair/ really wasnt old

4
PLOT

• Exposition
• Introductory paragraph describing infinity
• Point of Conflict
• The stranger appears at the narrators door.

5

• Complications
• Salesman offers the Book of Sand for sale/
  narrator examines the book and buys it/ narrator
  becomes obsessed with the book/ cant sleep and
  isolates himself
• Climax
• Narrator realizes that the book is monstrous and
  is consuming his life. The best place to hide a
  leaf is in a forest.

6

• Falling Action
• The narrator goes to the basement of the
  Argentine National Library, where books and maps
  and periodicals are kept
• Denouement (resolution)
• Narrator hides the book on one of the dusty
  shelves

7
CONFLICT

• External (elemental)- deciding to buy the book/
  negotiating the deal to get the Book of Sand
• Internal- the narrators struggle with his
  obsession with the book versus getting rid of the
  book

8
POINT OF VIEW

• 1st person Narrator
• The main character is the narrator of the
  story.

9
THEME

• The theme is paradoxical - a contradiction that
  holds a truth.
• There is no beginning or ending. The book is
  infinite contains everything in the universe,
  but like the world and life, it has a different
  appearance every time you look at it.

10
OTHER ELEMENTS

• Surrealism bizarre, unreal / even though the
  narrator says the story is true, it isnt
  believable
• Foreshadowing The first paragraphs discussion
  of infinite suggests the infinite nature of the
  Book of Sand
• Metaphor The Book of Sand is a metaphor for
  time and space